Citifluor AF1, glycerol mountant solution

Citifluor AF1 is a mountant solution composed of glycerol, phosphate buffered saline and an antifadent. It was specifically designed to stop the photobleaching of the fluorescein moiety of FITC labelled biological specimens. Its application is not however limited to FITC labelled materials and has been used with advantage with many other fluorochromes including rhodamines and DAPI. It is ideal for examining tissue sections and dead cells. The solution has a pH of ~10. The solution should be pipetted onto the specimen and then a cover slip applied. If the slides are stored in a refrigerator, the viscosity of the mountant solution increases thereby helping too keep the cover slip in place. There is no need to seal the cover slip with nail varnish. Specimens mounted in Citifluor AF1 solutions have been kept in this way for many months without suffering damage.

The solutions are of medium viscosity and are water-white in appearance. They may be stored at room temperature and ideally between 5° and 15° and out of strong sunlight. Samples stored under these conditions for 6 months have shown no apparent deterioration. If the Citifluor AF1 solution is being used in an assay, a control experiment should always be carried out.

Obtaining the correct viscosity for your application
If the viscosity of Citifluor AF1 solution is too high for your purposes, it may be admixed with Citifluor AF3 mountant solution. As the amount of Citifluor AF 3 solution is increased so the viscosity decreases. Conversely, if you wish to have a higher viscosity add Citifluor AF2 mountant solution to the Citifluor AF1 solution. Increasing the amount of Citifluor AF2 solution increases the viscosity.